Two new buyers at Laithwaite’s

Laithwaite’s, the UK subsidiary of global mail order wine business Direct Wines, has two new wine buyers.

Robin Langton will join the 10-strong team to look after the Burgundy, Beaujolais, Rhône, Portugal and South America (not Argentina or Chile) portfolios for Laithwaite’s.

Davy Zyw will join on October 7, to look after the buying for Italy and Alsace. Davy is currently at Tesco, where he is responsible for buying all of their Italian wine, bag-in-box products and lower alcohol styles. He is a former sommelier at Michelin-starred Le Gavroche in London.

Langton most recently working as a wine buyer at Naked Wines, and prior to that a winemaker at the likes of boutique Californian winery, Patz & Hall, where he specialised in super premium Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Mark Hoddy, Laithwaite’s resident winemaker at Le Chai au Quai winery in Bordeaux, will also be increasingly involved with the buying team. He will take on sole buying responsibility for the Loire, which is an important region for Laithwaite’s.

Laithwaite’s wine director Abi Hirshfeld, said: “Our direct, personal relationships with our wine suppliers are central to our ability to buy the best wines. Having Robin and Davy join the team makes us stronger than.” The Laithwaite’s Buying Team will now split the portfolios as follows: